Small Group, Big Discussions

Only five of us (all veterans of the group) at tonight's critique, and for what I believe is the first time in the almost 3 years that we've been meeting, no one brought wine or beer. But everyone brought art and the smaller group meant that we could devote more time to each artist and still finish up on time. We even had time to discuss that Work of Art show on Bravo.

Two artists brought oil paintings (far right and left above) that had been done years earlier, both representing a style that neither has worked in recently. However, in both cases recent events have given each artist an interest in returning to the medium and style of their earlier works. Jill brought in two small works (second from left), a painting and collage. People enjoyed the former, but the latter generated more discussion. Edy brought in her latest efforts in her evolving plastic project, part of which is seen below. The general feeling seemed to be that her big idea was worth pursuing, even as the pieces tonight didn't fully address it.

My piece also generated a lot of discussion. They did get that it was an image of someone forced outside to smoke. After that, there was some disagreement between my vision for it and what they were feeling. The issue of the hand came up again, a little for the size, but mostly for its placement- a number of people felt the whole composition would work better if it extended out slightly away from the shoulder. It might work, but it would be a bit of effort to adjust the ink drawing. A bigger problem was that the group was not seeing my concept of capturing a specific moment in time as a focus of the piece. They love the figure itself, and it was suggested that I just concentrate on that and ignore the 21st century employee concept that is driving me to do this. I don't see that happening (this thing has been too long in the works to toss all that away now), so I will have to give some more thought as to how to make the theme more apparent to the casual viewer. Luckily I don't need this piece to be complete anytime soon, so I have lots of time to consider my options.